Vladimir Putin was in Turkey on Thursday on a mission that demanded rather subtler skills than white-water rafting or fire-building. Fresh from his photogenic Siberian mini-break, Russia’s prime minister was in Ankara to persuade his hosts to sign up to South Stream, the proposed new gas pipeline from Russia to the European Union under the Black Sea.

The project needs Ankara’s consent because the planned route passes through its territorial waters, but it is not in Turkey’s strategic interests.